vicious
See also: Vicious
English
Alternative forms
- vitious (obsolete)
Etymology
From Middle English vicious, from Anglo-Norman vicious, (modern French vicieux), from Latin vitiōsus, from vitium (“fault, vice”).
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈvɪʃəs/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ɪʃəs
Adjective
vicious (comparative viciouser or more vicious, superlative viciousest or most vicious)
- Violent, destructive and cruel.
- Savage and aggressive.
- 1922, Michael Arlen, “2/9/1”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:
- He had always been remarkably immune from such little ailments, and had only once in his life been ill, of a vicious pneumonia long ago at school. He hadn't the faintest idea what to with a cold in the head, he just took quinine and continued to blow his nose.
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- (archaic) Pertaining to vice; characterised by immorality or depravity.
- 1603, John Florio, transl.; Michel de Montaigne, The Essayes, […], printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821:, Folio Society, 2006, vol.1, p.195:
- We may so seize on vertue, that if we embrace it with an over-greedy and violent desire, it may become vicious.
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Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations
violent, destructive
|
savage, aggressive
pertaining to vice; characterised by immorality or depravity
Middle English
Alternative forms
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /visiˈuːs/, /visˈjuːs/, /ˈvisjus/
Adjective
vicious (inflected form viciouse)
Descendants
- English: vicious
- Scots: veecious
References
- “viciǒus (adj.)” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2019-03-01.
Old French
Adjective
vicious m (oblique and nominative feminine singular viciouse)
- vicious; malicious
- defective; not capable of functioning
Declension
References
- vicios on the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub
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